Socialization practice of greetings among the Southeastern Igbo of Nigeria

Language socialization has been linked to infants’ language acquisition in that as children learn the language spoken in their environment, they are also encultured. Children or newcomers learning a language assimilate the community’s cultural ideologies alongside the language itself. This present study focuses on the Igbo greeting social practice and values and beliefs system around it in Southeastern Nigeria. The theoretical concepts of linguistic socialization and acquisition were used in a dynamic combination. An autobiographical approach to self-reflection was deployed to present evidence of how infants and children are socialized into the Southeastern Nigerian Igbo greeting social practice. Through the concept of ọ́zụ̀zụ̀, Igbo caregivers and/or mothers train children to acquire existing communal greeting systems to perform in culturally acceptable ways. The study highlights that children are also socialized into the appropriate address terms used for adult community members, simultaneously with greetings.